The Diesel type of engine, therefore, offers the means for greatly increasing the power-generating capacity of the petroleum yet to be produced in the United States, in itself alone having the ability to double the energy extraction from the 7,000,000,000 barrels of petroleum still under ground. But the true significance of the prospect does not appear from the general consideration. In connection with marine service has this principle its richest promise; the advantages of oil over coal for ocean shipping are well known and obvious. If America plans, as she must, on a great expansion in foreign trade and the building up of a substantial merchant marine, she would ignore her most potent point of superiority if she neglected the bearing of the Diesel engine on this matter. It may be a source of surprise to some that the Diesel engine has been so largely neglected in this country. In this respect, a quotation from a report of the United States Bureau of Mines may be of interest. Diesel developed his engine in the early nineties, and has since then greatly improved it and has made of it a most succesful and efficient power producer. At present it is thoroughly dependable and will burn a great variety of oils ** * *. Although the prime requisite in Europe seems to be economy in operation, low first cost seems to be a more important requirement in this country, and at first comparison with the steam engine the Diesel seems to be exceedingly costly. Small imperfections in mechanical construction, up to within a very recent date, seem also to have had their influence upon the nonconstruction of the engine in the United States. Also, although the general industrial profits within the United States are large, the very abundance of raw materials and the general extravagance in their use seem to have combined against the wide adoption of this engine, in spite of its being so highly efficient, and in spite of the fact that it has met with such success abroad. The generally wasteful methods of steam raising in this country must give way to the more efficient methods of fuel utilization that now prevail in Europe, if the United States is to maintain its present position or compete with other countries in the manufacturing industries. With a more conservative use of the Nation's abundant fuel supplies and a better development of the by-product industries, there is no reason why the heavy-oil engine should not materially aid in the more efficient utilization of the fuel resources of the United States.' The use of gas oil, a high-grade fuel oil, in the manufacture of city gas represents a practice largely unjustifiable on the basis of resource economy. In 1915, the amount used for this purpose was about 16,000,000 barrels, or roughly 6 per cent of the domestic petroleum production. With the exception of about one-fifth of the amount, which was employed for making oil gas in the Southwest, where coal is lacking, the bulk of the gas oil was used for carbureting or enriching the luminosity and calorific power of the various types of city gas 1I. C. Allen, Heavy oil as fuel for internal-combustion engines: Technical l'aper 37, Bureau of Mines, 1913, pp. 9-10. 2 See C. E. Lesher, Artificial gas and by-products: Mineral Resources of the United States for 1915, United States Geological Survey, p. 1051. T made from coal, in order to enable the product to meet standards imposed by municipalities standards in part a hold over from the days when the flat-flame use of gas made luminosity a necessary feature.1 While, broadly speaking, the use of oil in gas manufacturing is a degradation, the practice is not only economically justifiable but actually desirable so long as the main outlet for fuel oil is for firing steam boilers, a use still more degraded with the added disadvantage of offering a smaller inducement for refining.2 In addition to the extension of "cracking" distillation, improvements in motor design, and widespread use of the Diesel type of motor to replace the oil-fired steam engine, an unlimited field of advance in increased value extraction opens up in connection with the building up of an oil by-products industry. But this matter has been emphasized in the preceding pages and need not be detailed again at this point. The greatness of the opportunity, however, should not be underestimated. 4 Development of foreign sources of supply.—In addition to the domestic production of petroleum, this country since 1911 has been drawing upon the oil fields of Mexico at an increasing rate, so that in 1917 that country supplied roughly one-tenth of our needs. The pools of Mexico, accessibly situated in the Gulf Coastal Plain, are the richest in the world and are capable of a much greater annual production than has yet been taken from them. In fact, the output is mainly under the control of British and American interests, and is held in check, especially at the present time. In the Central American region in general, there are other promising oil districts, though none is developed in any way comparable to the Mexican deposits. It is not unreasonable to expect that further exploration and development will make available a reserve of oil in Mexico and Central America equal to the total remaining in the United States. These deposits, accordingly, offer themselves in increasing measure to supplement a waning domestic output. Their aid should be accepted, but their availability is incidental upon many uncertain factors, and obviously it would be unwise to grow into dependence upon them or permit their presence to offset action regarding the efficient utilization of our own resource. At best, these deposits and 1 See page 14, Bulletin 102, part 4, this series. 3 Coal and hydroelectricity should also assist in replacing the oil-fired steam engine. Little in the way of petroleum imports may be expected from other parts of the world; South American needs will probably more than absorb the future output of that continent. especially those in Mexico, if fully available and barring international complications, would put off the period of petroleum exhaustion in the United States for only a matter of say a couple of decades; hence their presence does not change the urgency of the domestic issue. Moreover, the high-use employment of these deposits the output is now used dominantly for fuel purposes― would be to the best interest of Great Britain, the United States, and other countries using the output, not to mention the advantage accruing to the producing Republics themselves. Indeed, it would seem, so far as such things may be determined from the outside, that Mexico would take the lead among the Republics concerned in developing a policy in regard to petroleum development that would prevent production from exceeding the demand for the high-use products, as this legitimate drain may be expected largely to exhaust the supplies within a generation or two. On the whole, it would appear to be for the good of all concerned that the Mexican deposits should not be more wastefully exploited than those of the United States, for the world needs the full service of the aggregate supply. DEVELOPMENT OF OIL SHALES. Granted the utmost in the development and use of the remaining supply of petroleum, economic pressure from oil shortage will still be not far distant. Attention turns, therefore, to sources of supply other than the porous rocks of oil fields thus far exclusively exploited in this country. It is of great significance, therefore, that within the past five years geological explorations on the part of the United States Geological Survey have definitely established the existence of vast areas of black shale in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming, much of it capable of yielding upon distillation1 around 50 gallons of oil, 3,000 cubic feet of gas, and 17 pounds of ammonium sulphate 2-the whole constituting an oil reserve aggregating many times the original supply of petroleum. 3 3 1 Oil shale is not supposed to contain petroleum, but upon the application of heat, it is thought, organic compounds present react to form an oil resembling petroleum from which can be obtained essentially the same products that petroleum itself yields. But this matter needs further investigation, as it is by no means certain that some oll shales, at least, do not actually contain petroleum as such. In either event, however, shale oil is practically the equivalent of petroleum. 2 The occurrence and distribution of these shales, together with the results of distillation tests, are given by Dean E. Winchester, Oil Shale in Northwestern Colorado and Adjacent Areas: Bulletin 641-F, United States Geological Survey, 1917, pp. 152-155. Yields up to 90 gallons of oil, 4,294 cubic feet of gas, and 34 pounds of ammonium sulphate were obtained from certain samples. The figures cited in the text, however, represent commercial averages typical of workable areas. 3 It is estimated that the oil shales of Colorado alone underlie 1,400 square miles, with an average aggregate thickness of 53 feet, and are capable of yielding 20,000,000,000 barrels of oil, an amount approximately twice as great as the original petroleum reserve in this country, together with 300,000,000 tons of ammonium sulphate, valuable as a fertilizer, nearly 900 times the domestic consumption of that substance in 1915. The important rôle of ammonium sulphate in modern affairs is shown on the chart accompanying Bulletin 102, part 2, of this series. While these shales have only recently come into notice a similar resource has for many years been profitably exploited in Scotland, New South Wales, and France, where nature has been less bountiful with petroleum; while in Germany the extraction of oil from lowgrade coal and other bituminous materials has become a well established undertaking. The financial success and national importance of the Scottish shale-oil industry is particularly significant, as this activity offers an established technology and a basis of experience for application to the domestic oil-shale matter. A comparison of the domestic prospects with the foreign practice, in the way of yields and values, may not be out of place. General comparison between oil shale of Scotland and of Colorado-Utah.a a Data generalized from various sources, including Bulletin 641-F, United States Geological Survey, 1917; Bacon and Hamor, The American Petroleum Industry, 1916; Hearings on oil shales before the House Committee on the Public Lands Feb. 26, 1918: personal communications from David T. Day and Russell D. George. The figures for Colorado-Utah are provisional rather than final, but are believed to be conservative. It is apparent from this table and from the general situation in respect to petroleum that domestic oil shale may soon come into coinmercial importance as a producing source of oil. Just when will depend upon the trend of the economic situation as affecting the production of petroleum. As a matter of fact, considerable commercial activity has already commenced looking toward the exploitation of the richer shale areas. especially in the Grand River Valley region of Colorado and near by 1 The shale oil of Scotland has been of great service to the English Navy in the present war by supplying many oil-bearing ships with fuel, to the relief of transAtlantic shipments; while the German oil has proved invaluable to that country in supplementing an inadequate command of petroleum resources. A good description of the Scottish shale-oil industry, with many references to the literature, may be found in Bacon and Hamor, The American petroleum industry, 1916, pp. 807-844. 3" These shale areas will be developed in time on as safe and sane a basis as our coal mines of to-day. When that time arrives, the remains of oil prospecting will have fied and the whole complexion of oil producing will change. mining with steam shovels in open pits and glory holes; and, later, tunnels and adits. It will, literally, be oil There will be no lack of oil products for several generations to come, but the true oil fields of to-day will probably disappear within another generation and be replaced by oil mines." Dorsey Hager, The search for new oil fields in the United States: Engineering and Mining Journal, Jan. 5, 1918, pp. 11-12. |